Forgiveness

New work from Micah Max includes these great posters: kindness, forgiveness, and patience. Designed as a part of the Power To The Poster project held to raise awareness to issues that poster makers are passionate about. Instead of blood for oil, immigration, or healthcare, I chose to try and create something that deals with interpersonal awareness. Want to give or get some forgiveness? Tear off a tab and make it happen.

I found this image a few weeks ago and planned on posting it here, but I didn’t have anything to write to accompany it. I still don’t. However, these past few days I have been thinking about forgiveness. What it means to forgive and to be forgiven. I hold grudges. Extreme grudges. Grudges that have lasted years. I struggle with this on a daily basis.

What if God held grudges? Jesus taught us to forgive no matter what, 70 times 7. How can I ask for Christ’s forgiveness for my lifetime of sins when I can’t turn around and forgive others for individual actions. Then I also think about things I have done in my life that I have been forgiven for by my friends and family. I am so grateful to have earned their forgiveness. God by his grace forgave us for our sins when He sent His very own Son to die for us. For you. For me. By his grace, we are going to one day be able to be fully immersed in all His glory and be with Him in His holiness. I truly can’t wrap my head around that, but without His forgiveness that wouldn’t be happening. Christ died to allow us to be seen as holy by His Father. As our sins pinned Him to the cross, He forgave us. Right in the middle of our trespasses, He forgives us. That is unconditional love.

In Matthew 18, Jesus is teaching His disciples about forgiveness. He illustrates this by telling them a story about a king and his servants. When the servant is relieved of his debt to the king, the servant turns and demands the debt of his fellow servant. The king responds,

I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not also have had compassion, just as I had pity on you?”

This is just something I think about a lot and have yet to have found it in my heart to forgive others, but I am working on it. Are there things in your life that you struggled with forgiveness? How did you find the strength to forgive?